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Common in the Indian Ocean region, wooden sandals changed meaning across place and time. This pair’s base elevates the foot as the toes grip an antelope-shaped peg (<em>msuruaki</em>). Crisp geometric sole designs suggest they were rarely worn. East African elites and merchants once had exclusive rights to wooden shoes, wearing elaborate ones only for portraits. Formerly enslaved people living along the coast wore simpler ones from the 1840s onward, adopting elite footwear to assert their liberation. However, slave traders like the Zanzibari “Tippu Tip” (c. 1832–1905) likely brought <em>mitalawanda </em>to Central Africa; stylistic elements of this pair hail from that region.
Page data
- Page
- 1
- Source index
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- Type
- photo
- Media ID
- 9c9896931b0cd992
- Size
- unknown
Document data
- ID
- 111077
- Core
- obj
- Type
- object
DTO data
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"contentType": "object",
"title": "Sandals (mitalawanda / mitawanda) or Clogs (kiatu cha mti)",
"description": "Common in the Indian Ocean region, wooden sandals changed meaning across place and time. This pair’s base elevates the foot as the toes grip an antelope-shaped peg (<em>msuruaki</em>). Crisp geometric sole designs suggest they were rarely worn. East African elites and merchants once had exclusive rights to wooden shoes, wearing elaborate ones only for portraits. Formerly enslaved people living along the coast wore simpler ones from the 1840s onward, adopting elite footwear to assert their liberation. However, slave traders like the Zanzibari “Tippu Tip” (c. 1832–1905) likely brought <em>mitalawanda </em>to Central Africa; stylistic elements of this pair hail from that region.",
"date": "c. 1800s",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.566",
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"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 6 x 10.2 cm (2 3/8 x 4 in.); Part 2: 4.5 x 12.4 cm (1 3/4 x 4 7/8 in.); Part 3: 6 x 9.5 cm (2 3/8 x 3 3/4 in.); Part 4: 3.2 x 12.1 cm (1 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.)",
"cul": [
"Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver"
],
"accession": "1929.566"
}
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Document identity
{
"localId": "111077",
"label": "Sandals (mitalawanda / mitawanda) or Clogs (kiatu cha mti)",
"core": "obj",
"dtoType": "object"
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Document source metadata
{
"id": "111077",
"contentType": "object",
"title": "Sandals (mitalawanda / mitawanda) or Clogs (kiatu cha mti)",
"description": "Common in the Indian Ocean region, wooden sandals changed meaning across place and time. This pair’s base elevates the foot as the toes grip an antelope-shaped peg (<em>msuruaki</em>). Crisp geometric sole designs suggest they were rarely worn. East African elites and merchants once had exclusive rights to wooden shoes, wearing elaborate ones only for portraits. Formerly enslaved people living along the coast wore simpler ones from the 1840s onward, adopting elite footwear to assert their liberation. However, slave traders like the Zanzibari “Tippu Tip” (c. 1832–1905) likely brought <em>mitalawanda </em>to Central Africa; stylistic elements of this pair hail from that region.",
"date": "c. 1800s",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.566",
"rights": "CC0",
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"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.566/1929.566_web.jpg",
"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 6 x 10.2 cm (2 3/8 x 4 in.); Part 2: 4.5 x 12.4 cm (1 3/4 x 4 7/8 in.); Part 3: 6 x 9.5 cm (2 3/8 x 3 3/4 in.); Part 4: 3.2 x 12.1 cm (1 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.)",
"cul": [
"Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver"
],
"accession": "1929.566"
}
Document source extras
{
"tec": "Wood and glass beads",
"tombstone": "Sandals (mitalawanda / mitawanda) or Clogs (kiatu cha mti), c. 1800s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver. Wood and glass beads; overall: 6 x 10.2 cm (2 3/8 x 4 in.); part 2: 4.5 x 12.4 cm (1 3/4 x 4 7/8 in.); part 3: 6 x 9.5 cm (2 3/8 x 3 3/4 in.); part 4: 3.2 x 12.1 cm (1 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Educational Purchase Fund, 1929.566",
"collection": "African Art",
"didYouKnow": "This distinctive footwear traveled from Southeast Asia and the Middle East to Africa, first to the Swahili Coast and then further inland to parts of Central Africa. The deity Krishna wears similar shoes (<em>paduka</em>) in an eighteenth-century Indian miniature painting (2003.344).",
"citations": [
{
"citation": "“Permanent Collection Installations: Arts of Africa: Gallery Rotation.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine </em>vol. 62, no.4 (December 2022): 12-13.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 13."
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.566",
"creditline": "Educational Purchase Fund",
"sketchfabId": "0912b44e99ee4a85b529f99567dcdb84",
"sketchfabUrl": "https://sketchfab.com/models/0912b44e99ee4a85b529f99567dcdb84",
"updatedAt": "2026-06-18 21:17:27.429000",
"imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.566/1929.566_print.jpg",
"sourceId": 111077,
"dept": "African Art",
"coll": "African Art",
"med": "Wood and glass beads",
"thumbnail_url": null,
"image_url": null
}
Page context
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